Fielding Graduate University News

Open research and education: Fielding alumna Gigi Johnson presents globally

The first Open Knowledge Festival was held in in Helsinki from September 17th to 22nd, 2012 with over 800 participants from across the globe. This festival included a week of participatory sessions, keynote lectures, workshops, hackathons and satellite events. This years theme was Open Knowledge in Action: looking at the value that can be generated by opening up knowledge, the ecosystems of organizations that can benefit from such sharing, and the impacts transparency can have in society.

The week was organized through collaborations amongst over 100 guest planners from around the world leading 13 key Topic Streams of whom Fielding Graduate University alumna and current Fielding Alumni Council member, Gigi Johnson, EdD, (ELC '11) presented on Topic Stream 7: Open Research and Education. From her time zone southern California in the middle of the night, Gigi remotely joined team members from Mexico City, Brooklyn, and in Finland at the festival. Gigi noted, "It went really well. We used Google Hangout to do a four city discussion while showing videos and text from our Peeragogy project. Our cohort on the ground (on-site in Helsinki) worked with our workshop participants, who had contributing new ideas to the research project based on their experiences across several countries."

To view videos of how hundreds of change-makers and experts from private, public and community sectors and helped build an international open knowledge ecosystem in Helsinki:OK Festival